Sleepless in the Saddle

I haven’t raced for nearly a month, and I can really feel it. I am on a light training week this week but I my legs feel really fresh. Im dying to go out and feel some pain. Last week I did a local 18 mile hilly TT. I was promised the hills would reduce the benefit afforded to those with TT bikes. I am yet to be convinced. The first couple of miles was climbing steadily to the top of the course, and although I started 5th I was the first to the top. From there, it went downhill, both metaphorically and geographically. I felt like I just couldn’t pedal fast enough and was running out of gears on the gradual descent into a headwind. After a few minutes of the descent my back started to ach from being on the drops and I had to sit up a bit which made me feel like I was riding in a parachute. I was caught by my minute man here and kept with him up the next short climb before being dropped on the final long undulating section. It was a tough 45 minutes and my HR was up around my max for the climb which was good.


Since then I took my kiwi uncle and his girlfriend to Cannock chase for a couple of laps of the trails. They moaned most of the way around about having to ride hardtails and it being too cold so I left them at the car and did a quick lap of the monkey trail solo.


After this I headed over to Sleepless in the Saddle to pit for a Rich Wilson while also providing live updates for the Columbia Bikefood team of Rob, Chaz, Sherg and Gethin. When I arrived it was in the aftermath of a heavy shower and the riders coming in were covered in mud. Fortunately, for the rest of the race it stayed dry and the trails dried up a treat. I have to say, I actually found pitting for a 24 harder than riding it at the time. I stayed up until 5am and was in a real state by the time I eventually bedded down for a couple of hours. Despite a brief mix up with change overs, the event went well for everyone in our pit area. Rich came home in 12th solo, 1st solo singlespeed and 3rd singlespeed overall, behind a couple of teams. When you recognise the fact that he is also about 92, a vegetarian, a newlywed and a soon-to-be-dad, it makes his achievement even more impressive! The boys in orange also fought hard throughout and came in 3rd in enthusiast men. A well deserved result, although it was looking like they could scrape the win at one point until the army took control of the situation.


I can say with confidence that I wont be offering my pit services again anytime soon, even if I do get offered a big box of mini toothpastes for my effort!


I have put some photos I took from the weekend here.